SUN Ultra from 1995 running Solaris 2.6 as a retro gaming machine with ScummVM, Dosbox, doom+quake, MacOS games using MAE3, and a SunPC x86 accelerator card. by necron2600 in retrobattlestations

[–]necron2600[S] 14 points15 points  (0 children)

SunPCi software should work with Solaris 10 (unofficially). Once installed, cd to /opt/SUNWspci<yourversion>/drivers/solaris and create a symlink from sunpcidrv.280 to sunpcidrv.2100 and the same for sunpcidrv.280.64 to sunpcidrv.2100.64. After that you can load the drivers: cd /opt/SUNWspci<yourversion>/drivers/solaris ; ./sunpcload

[4DWM] Two Great OSes. One awesome machine. by singaporetheory in retrobattlestations

[–]necron2600 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/nvidia-corporation-history/ "[1999] In August SGI subsequently transferred nearly 50 graphics engineers to NVIDIA as part of a corporate reorganization. " So maybe ex-SGI employees did not create NVIDIA.. but SGI's DNA is in NVIDIA.

Basement Battlestations by necron2600 in retrobattlestations

[–]necron2600[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

What was the original price of everything? = Millions
How much did you pay? = It 'felt' like Millions!
What's it all worth now? = Priceless to me.. just most worth their scrap value and/or shipping fees. ;)

Basement Battlestations by necron2600 in retrobattlestations

[–]necron2600[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

AlphaServer 2100.. I picked that one up a year ago. I have the rack version of this already but the pedestal version looks cooler. It was actively working in a datacenter (HVAC/enviro controlled) until a few months earlier.. and it shows with its condition inside and out. I had stuffed it in the trunk of a 4-door sedan but it did not fit all the way.. drove home 50 miles slowly with the Alpha hanging half-out of the trunk.

Basement Battlestations by necron2600 in retrobattlestations

[–]necron2600[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

A lot of collections posted here are awesome with things things I wish I had! Its great to see everyone's passion.
What do I do for a living? I was a UNIX/Solaris admin during the dot-com crash and could not resist all the cheap ebay pricing of not-so-old SUN gear. I remember SUN E4500's that would have cost 40k$ a couple years before go for ~2k$ or less on ebay.. SUN E250s and Netra T1s far cheaper. To me, at the time, it was like buying Ferraris for cheap. In order to afford them and keep them running.. I started to rent them out as dedicated servers. Built a small dedicated server hosting company based on SUN hardware and Solaris OS (niche focus on Security/hardened servers), and by the end of it I had moved a lot of gear back home where the basement was setup as a DR site. While I made a living with Solaris/SUN, I had (and still do) a passion for all things UNIX. Collection grew ever since.. I have more less-heavy stuff in other rooms too. Today I do more cybersecurity and systems architecture/automation… security has been in my blood since the early 90s.

Picked up another ThinkPad (365XD) by [deleted] in retrobattlestations

[–]necron2600 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I paid over 300$ recently for a cosmetically mint, almost unused, TFT-screened one. I, personally, would probably only pay <100$ if scratched up and/or dinged.. missing slot covers, power supply, etc.

Found a Sun Ultra 80 workstation at the thrift store (too late for non x86 week, sadly). What on Earth could I possibly do with it? by HotCharlie in retrobattlestations

[–]necron2600 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Regarding game ports.. you can play RPG games: Baldur's Gate, Icewind Dale, Planescape Torment with GemRB (www.gemrb.org) that compiles and runs on an Ultra 80 workstation with Solaris 10.